RUSSIA
Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, of the diocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, met in recent weeks with the Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Kirill, who also heads the department of external relations at the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow. The deputy head of the aforesaid department, Archpriest Vsevolod Tchaplin, and Orthodox priest Igor Vyzhanov, secretary for relations between Christians, also took part in the meeting. “Mutual willingness to enter into dialogue to solve the problems causing suspicion and misunderstanding between us is encouraging – commented Kondrusiewicz at the end of the meeting -. Catholics in Russia have nothing to be ashamed of. We are not foreigners in our homeland”. With reference to the question of providing prior information about the activities of the Catholic Church in parishes outside Moscow, the archbishop said he had always asked for meetings with Orthodox bishops “with a view to expressing to them our respect and keeping them informed about the life and programmes of the Catholic Church in Russia”. The archbishop of Moscow also expressed the hope that “after this meeting with Metropolitan Kirill Catholic-Orthodox dialogue may become more concrete and help promote the realization of new joint initiatives aimed at the defence of moral values and Christian witness”. “Everything possible needs to be done – he concluded – to promote a future meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Alexei II, which would open a new chapter in relations between Catholics and Orthodox and give new impetus to the defence of Christian values”.
